Huntingdon
Huntingdon, the former county town of Huntingdonshire, before it was absorbed into Cambridgeshire, is an ancient town first settled to any extent by the Romans. The town forms a single unit with Godmanchester, to which it is linked across the River Great Ouse by a beautiful 13th century road bridge. In Roman times the two towns were separate settlements on the cross-roads of the Via Devara, which ran from Colchester to Chester, and Ermine Street, linking London with York. Huntingdon boasts many grand Georgian buildings, including the handsome three-storeyed Town Hall, while the Church of All Saints incorporates many different architectural styles, from medieval to Victorian.
Huntingdon is best remembered as the birth place of Oliver Cromwell, although associations with other members of the Cromwell family are much in evidence throughout the town.Hinchingbroke House, now serving as a school, was originally a 13th century Benedictine convent that passed to the Cromwell family during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, 1536-9. Sir Richard, great grandfather of Oliver, built a Tudor country house around its walls, and his son, Sir Henry, entertained Elizabeth I there in 1564. The George Inn, a former coaching inn of which records date back at least to the time of Henry VIII (1509-47), was once the property of Cromwell's grandfather. The George has an inner courtyard, overlooked by a gallery, where Shakespearean plays are still occasionally performed.
Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon in 1599, the son of a country gentleman, in a house close to the old Roman road of Ermine Street. Its site is now marked by a plaque. Cromwell was baptised at All Saints Church, where his father was eventually buried. The church itself has been much altered and restored down the centuries, but still retains some 11th century Norman and Perpendicular work. The young Oliver attended Huntingdon Grammar School in about 1610, again a building with its Norman stonework still in evidence; Samuel Pepys was another notable pupil at the same school. This building was reopened in 1962 as the Cromwell Museum, housing the only public collection relating specifically to the most powerful man in the land until his death; exhibits include portraits and personnel objects, among them is a hat and the great man's seal of office.
Cromwell was made a Justice of the Peace in 1630 and moved to nearby St Ives in the following year. Rising to power as an extremely able military commander of the Parliamentarian New Model Army during the Civil War of 1642-9, Cromwell raised troops from the Huntingdon region making his headquarters in the local Falcon Inn. Appointed Lord Protector of England from 1653, Cromwell was never proclaimed king despite running the country's affairs until his death in 1658.
Many visitors follow the 'Cromwell Trail', which guides them around the legacy of buildings and places, in and around Huntingdon, associated with one of England's greatest statesmen.